Highways closed and communities declared states of emergency on Sunday after a deluge of rain drenched southeast Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba

A tree blown over by strong winds does some serious damage to a parked car in Winnipeg on Sunday.

By:The Canadian Press, Published on Sun Jun 29 2014

MELVILLE, SASK.—Highways closed and communities declared states of emergency on Sunday after a deluge of rain drenched southeast Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba.

Melville, about 140 kilometres northwest of Regina, declared a state of local emergency after rain overwhelmed the city’s storm and domestic sewer systems, as well as its lift stations.

The Saskatchewan government said the Town of Carnduff, the Rural Municipality of Mount Pleasant and the Village of Maryfield have also declared local emergencies.

The government warned about a dozen other communities were in the process of doing the same as heavy rain continued.

Moosomin Mayor Larry Tomlinson said close to a third of his town was suffering flood damage and that the rain was still falling on Sunday afternoon.

“Part of our town looks like lakes,” said Tomlinson. “We’ll just try to keep up to it. It’s all we can do.”

RCMP in Moosomin said Highway 8 has been shut from Highway 1, north about 50 kilometres to Spyhill.

Another section of that highway further south has also been closed due to a washout, and police said other secondary roads are also impassable.

John Fahlman with the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency said the storm came from the northern U.S. and hit the region near the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary the hardest. Some areas, he said, received almost 230 millimetres over the weekend.

Tomlinson, meanwhile, noted that strong winds were also knocking out power to parts of Moosomin. That meant homeowners with electric pumps were left helpless until power could be restored, he said.

“We’ve got some basements that have as much as three feet of water in them,” he said. “It’s not great.”

In Manitoba, Brandon declared a state of local emergency due to overland flooding and flights at its airport were disrupted when the facility’s main access road was flooded.

Allison Collins, a spokeswoman for the city, said WestJet cancelled its flights for the day to and from Calgary on Sunday and that the airline would evaluate whether flights would go ahead on Monday.

Rain in Manitoba also flooded the RCMP detachment in Selkirk, Man., on Saturday causing the detachment to lose telephone service.

Environment Canada forecasts on Sunday called for rain to continue in the region through the day, the night and into Monday.

Saskatchewan officials said the province is deploying teams to the affected areas and is collecting flood control equipment in Regina, which they say would help it cut response times for areas needing help..

“We’re focused on supporting municipalities as they support their citizens,” said Duane McKay, commissioner of emergency management and public safety.

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